UK's top power firm Drax to invest £2 billion in 900 MW biomass power plants
23 October 2008
UK's largest power generation company, Drax Power Limited, which operates Europe's biggest coal-fired power plant, is investing £2 billion to build three new biomass-fired stations of 300 MW capacity each, in joint venture with Siemens.
Earlier in May this year Drax had outlined a £50-million project to cut down its coal consumption by replacing 10 per cent of its coal requirement with biomass, which will be prepared at a processing plant to be built by French power equipment major Alstom, with the first phase expected to be completed in 2009. The 1.5-million tonnes per year biomass co-firing facility will be constructed at the 4,000MW Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, believed to be the largest biomass cofiring project in the world, and is a part of Drax's target of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 15 per cent, based on current out put by 2011.
Work on the he three biomass-fed power stations in joint venture with Siemens is expected to start on the first of the three plants in 2010, with the first plant expected to be operational in 2014. When all three plants are completed, Drax expects to provide at least 15 per cent of the UK's renewable energy and up to 10 per cent of total UK electricity.
"Meeting our 10 per cent co-firing target is key to achieving our goal of 15 per cent carbon abatement," Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of Drax, had said in May while announcing the biomass processing facility. ''We have a role to play in the transition towards a low carbon economy whilst delivering reliable supplies of electricity.''
Earlier this month Drax announced that it had signed a £10 million EPC contract with Doosan Babcock Energy Limited to supply direct injection biomass co-firing systems to all six coal-fired generating units at the 4,000MW Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire.
Building on Drax's expertise in biomass co-firing, the expansion of its renewables business is expected to deliver significant attractive long-term growth opportunities for Drax.
